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On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Joseph P. McDonald manned the switchboard at Fort Shafter in Hawaii when he received the alarming message that radar had detected a large number of planes approaching from the north, heading fast for Oahu.
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Motorists who use the Pango mobile app to pay at parking meters in Scranton will get reimbursed for any inadvertent overcharges since Sept. 1, the new operator of the city’s parking system said.
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As a police expert on Tuesday reconstructed the car crash that killed Lenny Zupon on Saturday night, friends and family did their best to deal with the death of the boy described as “vibrant, full of energy.”

At All Saints Academy in Scranton, where the 12-year-old Scranton youth just started seventh grade and his mother, Mary Jane, works as a secretary to the principal, students spent the early part of the first full day of school at St. Patrick’s Church next door. They prayed for Lenny and his family, school principal Michele Long said.

“We’re in a very somber mood,” Mrs. Long said. “We’re just relying on our faith to get us through.”

At Geisinger Community Medical Center, the boy’s father, Leonard Zupon Sr., took a turn for the worse. Listed in good condition on Sunday, hospital spokeswoman Westyn Hinchey said he was in critical condition Tuesday afternoon.

Lenny died at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville. An autopsy is scheduled for this morning, but he is believed to have died of multiple blunt force injuries, Montour County Coroner Scott Lynn said.

Friends of the Zupons started an online fundraising drive to help the family cover funeral, medical and other expenses. Contributions may be made through the website, www.giveforward.com, said Lisa Kennedy, a friend and co-worker of Mrs. Zupon at All Saints. To contribute, go to the website, type “Zupon” in the search window and follow the links after that.

Mrs. Kennedy said the accident deeply affected students and staff at the school.

“It’s horrible,” she said. “It was shocking to everyone.”

Lenny was a passenger in a Mustang driven by his father when it collided Saturday about 8:45 p.m. in the 100 block of North Keyser Avenue in Old Forge with a SUV driven by David S. Turano, 44, 94 Lower Powderly St., Carbondale.

In a post on giveforward.com that she confirmed she wrote, Mrs. Kennedy said Lenny and his father were on their way to get ice cream. Neither wore a seat belt, police said.

Mr. Turano fled the scene on foot but Taylor police caught him four or five blocks away near Oak Street in Taylor, Chief Dubernas said.

He was transported to a hospital for a blood test, suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol.

Chief Dubernas said the test results should be available in about a week. Police plan to charge him after obtaining the test results and based on the state police crash reconstruction report.

Despite Mr. Turano’s leaving the scene of the crash, police do not consider him a risk to flee the area, and will file fleeing charges at the same time they filed other charges, the chief said. Mr. Turano was cooperative after officers apprehended him, but could not explain why he fled.

“He had no answer to that,” Chief Dubernas said. “He said he was dazed and confused.”

At Lenny’s school on Tuesday, stunned friends remembered a boy who grew up at the school, starting there in pre-school. He played basketball on the school’s team.

“He wasn’t going to be in the NBA, but whatever he tried his hardest,” Mrs. Long said.

Lenny regularly volunteered to serve as an altar boy at Mass and carried books into classrooms to help teachers prepare as the school year approached.

“Lenny was vibrant, full of energy,” Mrs. Long said. “The halls of All Saints Academy will never be the same.”

Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com

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